The present invention relates to a semiconductor circuit pattern measuring apparatus and a method, and particularly, to an analysis technique of images of semiconductor devices.
In a manufacturing process of a semiconductor device, a size of a circuit pattern such as fine wiring and holes formed on a semiconductor wafer is measured to thereby perform manufacturing control. Contours in a photographic image of the circuit pattern are extracted so as to measure the size of the circuit pattern.
In JP-A-2001-338304, a method called a threshold method is illustrated as a method for extracting contours of a circuit pattern in a photographic image. In this threshold method, by using as a reference a maximum intensity signal in a photographic image, a level slice of an intensity profile is performed with a given threshold so as to calculate the position of a measured contour.